A huge fire that caused days of misery for Eurostar passengers started when a lorry’s aerial got too close to the overhead power cables, a report has found.
The fire took nearly five hours to get under control and put the tunnel out of action altogether for more than a day.
Delays lasted well into the following week.
The government's Rail Accident Investigation Branch on Monday published a report saying the blaze had been triggered by a lorry aerial sticking up above the maximum allowed height.
The report authors wrote: “The fire completely consumed two lorries that were being conveyed on the shuttle, and caused damage to rolling stock, railway infrastructure and the tunnel lining.
“It also severely disrupted services through the Channel Tunnel for several days.”
At midday on January 17, there was a massive electricity discharge, known as an arc, between the overhead power line and a Eurotunnel freight train as it entered the tunnel at Folkestone.
Smoke appeared to be developing inside the cab. However, as there was no requirement for the train to be inspected, this early sign of a developing fire was not identified
<p>Rail Accident Investigation Branch</p>
“The arc occurred above a lorry carried on the 15th carrier wagon out of 32,” the report adds, “and was almost certainly due to an over-height radio aerial attached to the back of the lorry’s cab.”
The electrical arc started a fire on the carrier wagon that shut down the power but did not trigger fire alarms for another 23 minutes.
“As the train came to a stand inside the tunnel […], smoke appeared to be developing inside the cab of the incident lorry,” said the report. “However, as there was no requirement for the train to be inspected, this early sign of a developing fire was not identified.
“It was 23 minutes later that the fire was detected. In the meantime, opportunities to stop the train […] had been missed.”
Forty-eight people had to be evacuated from the blazing train and the tunnel was emptied.
The aerial was later spotted on CCTV standing higher than the Eurotunnel height limit of 4.2m above road level. The overhead power cables are at their lowest at the UK tunnel entrance, meaning it is likely the sparking happened there.
The RAIB criticised Eurotunnel for removing the roof from early designs for the wagons that carry lorries.
Eurotunnel did not check the aerial detection system worked properly after modifying the train design, the report said.
Wagons originally had roofs but they were taken away “because of concerns over [their] structural integrity”.
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A junior staff member spotted the aerial sticking up as the train left, but was told the lorry would already have passed the aerial detection system.
“The RAIB concluded that loading agents cannot be expected to reliably detect thin aerials,” the report said. “Nevertheless, the RAIB observes that, in this instance, an opportunity to stop the departing shuttle was missed."
